Karatau Mine
Karatau is an operating in situ recovery uranium mine located on the No. 2 Site of the Budenovskoye Uranium Field in the southwestern part of the Chu-Sarysu basin in the Suzak region, South Kazakhstan province, approximately 400 km northwest of Shymkent and 200 km east of Kyzylorda, Kazakhstan. The mine is owned by the Karatau joint venture, a Kazakh registered limited liability partnership in which Uranium One has a 50% interest. The other 50% interest in Karatau is owned by JSC NAC Kazatomprom, Kazakhstan’s state-owned company responsible for the mining and exporting of uranium.
Production
Commercial production at the Karatau mine commenced on January 1, 2009, after two years of pilot production.
Pursuant to the terms of its subsoil use contract, the current production capacity of the Karatau mine is 5,200,000 lbs U3O8 (2,000 t U) per year.
Uranium is extracted at the Karatau mine using the in situ recovery method, and processed using ion exchange technology at a processing facility on site.
Most recently, in 2011, the Karatau mine produced 5,563,300 lbs U3O8 (2,175 t U), of which 2,826,800 lbs U3O8 (1,087 t U) was attributable to Uranium One.
Mineral Resources and Mineral Reserves
The following table sets out the mineral resource and mineral reserve estimates for the Karatau mine as at December 31, 2011.
|
KARATAU MINE (as at December 31, 2011) |
Ore (000s tonnes) |
Grade (% U) |
Tonnes U |
Grade (%U3O8) |
U3O8 (000s lbs) |
||
|
Reserves |
100% |
100% |
50% |
|
100% |
50% |
|
|
Proven |
22,000 |
0.011 |
2,510 |
1,255 |
0.013 |
6,530 |
3,265 |
|
Probable |
18,700 |
0.034 |
6,340 |
3,170 |
0.040 |
16,480 |
8,240 |
|
Proven and Probable |
40,700 |
0.022 |
8,850 |
4,425 |
0.026 |
23,010 |
11,505 |
|
Resources |
|
|
|
||||
|
Measured |
10,650 |
0.044 |
4,643 |
2,321 |
0.052 |
12,100 |
6,050 |
|
Indicated |
9,342 |
0.075 |
7,052 |
3,526 |
0.089 |
18,300 |
9,150 |
|
Measured and Indicated |
19,992 |
0.058 |
11,695 |
5,847 |
0.069 |
30,400 |
15,200 |
|
Inferred |
9,685 |
0.072 |
7,006 |
3,503 |
0.085 |
18,200 |
9,100 |
Notes:
(1) Mineral Resources that are not Mineral Reserves do not have demonstrated economic viability. Inferred Mineral Resources have a great amount of uncertainty as to their existence and as to their economic feasibility. Under no circumstances can it be assumed that all or any part of an Inferred Mineral Resource will ever be upgraded to a higher Mineral Resource category or converted to Mineral Reserves.
(2) The foregoing Mineral Resource and Mineral Reserve estimates are taken from the report titled “Technical Report on the Karatau Uranium Mine, Kazakhstan” dated March 1, 2012 (as amended May 2, 2012), prepared for Uranium One by Roscoe Postle Associates Inc. and are subject to the methods, parameters, assumptions, qualifications and procedures which are set out in such report. For a complete description of such methods, parameters, assumptions, qualifications and procedures, reference should be made to the full text of the foregoing reports, which is available for review on SEDAR under Uranium One’s profile located at the following website: www.sedar.com. Mineral Resources and Mineral Reserves are reported in accordance with Definition Standards on Mineral Resources and Mineral Reserves adopted by the Council of the Canadian Institute of Mining, Metallurgy and Petroleum and National Instrument 43-101 – Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects promulgated by the Canadian Securities Administrators.
(3) The second column for “Tonnes U” and “U3O8” represents the portion of total Mineral Reserves and/or Mineral Resources notionally attributable to Uranium One’s equity interest in the joint venture through which the property is owned in the percentage indicated in this column.
